VIDEO: Hellcat-level Challenger fun for $20k less

A family friend who loves herself a sports car and has owned many — mostly Cougars and Mustangs — she knows a thing or two about style and speed.

Doreen doesn’t drive much anymore, so I recently picked her up for a three-hour trip, to deliver her to my parents for a visit.

As circumstances had it, I arrived at Doreen’s retirement home in the last car one might consider appropriate for a road trip with a little old lady: one fluorescent green Dodge Challenger T/A 392.

It’s obnoxious.

Angry.

Has an exhaust note that (literally) rattled my neighbours toothbrush off of his bathroom counter.

Hell, it’s even got hood pins.

Comfier than it looks

The Challenger T/A 392 is a decent but busy highway cruise with power to stoke a smile in a heartbeat. (JUSTIN PRITCHARD)

I’m waiting for Doreen at the front doors of her retirement residence and the Challenger T/A is getting lots of attention.

Suddenly, I’m swarmed by a lot of very elderly people, many of them swearing energetically.

A few hours into our drive, Doreen says the Challenger is ‘lovely’. I worried she’d be uncomfortable, but she hadn’t stopped smiling.

Challenger T/A 392 rides better than it looks like it rides — a little jouncy and busy on rougher roads, but a worthy highway cruiser.

Adult-ready rear seats are comfortable once settled into, and the trunk is big enough for a four-person complement of luggage, too.

I was driving gently, rowing the six manually-shifted gears as smoothly as possible, and keeping the revs to bare-minimum levels. Most of the tester’s 485 horsepower were sleeping.

But Doreen asked if she could hear what the T/A sounded like. I obliged, dropped a few gears, and gave the T/A a good prod. Doreen laughed hysterically and said a word I can’t repeat.

Why this package?

If you pick the rocket launcher, not the sniper rifle when you play Call of Duty, this deliciously obnoxious ride is for you. (JUSTIN PRITCHARD)

Smiles, folks. That’s what these hopped-up Dodge Challengers are all about. There are many to choose from, too: Demons and Scat-Packs and RT’s and Hellcats (oh my!)

The Challenger T/A? It’s the latest special-edition Challenger, and intends to commemorate the Trans Am racing cars of the seventies.

You get the tires, wheels, brakes and air intake system (with hood-scoop and headlights that double as air intakes) from the 707-horsepower Challenger Hellcat.

A six-speed manual transmission.

Special graphics and badging.

Cloth seats.

A specially-tweaked and lowered suspension specific to the T/A, which can be ordered with V8 engines in 5.7- or 6.4-litre displacement.

The tester got the bigger engine, which packs more power than anyone needs.

A Challenger T/A like this tester puts the majority of your funds toward all of the best performance kit, skips a bunch of stuff you don’t really need, and translates into some serious bang for the buck.

Huge acceleration

Configured like the $61,000, 485-horsepower tester, you’ve got an ideal package for maximized bang for the buck.

At $20,000 less than a Hellcat, the Challenger T/A is about 98 per cent as much fun to drive.

Sports exhaust, with wee mufflers and great big plumbing, is standard. The sound is audible for a mile, and always seems like it’s reflecting off of the streets of Detroit on a muggy summer night.

Cruise gently and the exhaust tone quiets down into a subdued burble. There’s no need to raise your voice for a conversation.

Acceleration is huge, with three short gears, then two taller ones, and sixth, for cruising. The gearbox is entertaining: smooth but heavy, backed by a clutch that holds plenty of power and has a grippy feel, but isn’t tiresome in traffic.

You need to precisely learn the right rhythm to change gears smoothly without any driveline lash — it’s a demanding gearbox in this regard, but the faster and harder you work it, the smoother it is.

Ditto the brakes. Worked gently, they’re a little vague and numb, but the harder you press the middle pedal, the more precision you get. It’s a common theme: much of the Challenger TA’s best stuff is strutted when you drive it really hard.

Flat, tidy in turns

This car does what you ask when you ask it. (JUSTIN PRITCHARD)

Here, what you feel from the driver’s seat is unique. The T/A is extremely sensitive and obedient to your inputs.

“But American cars are lardy and handle like a dump truck full of coleslaw!” shout the import enthusiasts.

This is incorrect. Simply, Challenger T/A is enormous, but also flat, tidy, and more athletic than anyone who doesn’t drive one probably thinks. It’s a big green conquest of engineering over mass — a big machine built to respond immediately to even the tiniest requests.

This is the real charm of driving this car: it’s hugely entertaining to feel this much mass around you responding so urgently to what you want.

And though it makes no apologies for its size or weight, when you grab it by the scruff and toss it around a little, your grin will be visible from space.

Sure, it thoroughly enjoys fuel, isn’t classy, is hard to see out of, and requires very careful parking, thanks to a low front spoiler.

But for pure daily-driveable entertainment value with killer looks and sound effects, this one just nails it.